The world demand for cocoa products has increased over recent decades, especially for use in chocolate and chocolate products. Cocoa beans and/or portions thereof can be used to make a variety of cocoa products including, but not limited to, cocoa nibs, cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, cocoa presscakes, and/or cocoa powder. Each of these cocoa products can be further refined and/or mixed with other ingredients to create other cocoa products.
The quality of a cocoa product depends partly on the quality of the cocoa beans used to make the cocoa product. The quality of the cocoa beans depends on various conditions during harvest, the fermentation process, the drying process of the fermented beans, as well as shipment and storage conditions of the cocoa beans. The quality of the cocoa beans can also depend on the variety of the cocoa plant from which the beans are obtained, as well as on where that variety is grown. Not all countries grow the same variety or type of cocoa plants and these varieties and types can be distinguished by their differing flavor formation characteristics. Even cocoa beans obtained from identical varieties of cocoa plants can have different characteristics when grown in a different environment or by changes of climate. Cocoa beans of lower quality may vary in different parameters, such as (off-) flavor, degree of fermentation, levels of free fatty acids, or in presence of various contaminants in or on the cocoa beans.
Various contaminants might be present in cocoa products. During storage, molds may grow on cocoa beans, which can lead to the formation of mycotoxins, such as aflatoxins and ochratoxins. Though the formation of aflatoxins in cocoa products can be inhibited by the presence of caffeine and theobromine, high concentrations of these mycotoxins in the cocoa products produced from these contaminated beans can be harmful. Certain metal contaminants also may be present within the cocoa beans, such as lead, iron, aluminum and silicium.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,676,993, Watterson et al. describe a process for enhancing the cacao flavor obtained from inferior or lower quality cocoa beans. This process comprises roasting combinations of amino acids and reducing sugars with cocoa butter, cocoa liquor, or cocoa nibs derived from the inferior cocoa beans.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,562, Terauchi et al. describe treating cocoa beans or cacao nibs with alkali to extract the water-soluble portion of the cocoa mass. All of the examples provide for alkali treatment of deshelled and/or cracked cocoa beans (or cocoa nibs) or of cocoa mass. The specification of that patent describes the addition of alkali in an amount of about 1% by weight (wt %) to about 2 wt %, where an amount less than 1 wt % yields a low amount of the water-soluble portion and an amount more than 2 wt % results in unreacted alkali in the cocoa mass that can be transferred to the water-soluble portion.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,292, Kattenberg describes a method of preparing cocoa with a color coordinate L of 16 or less and a simple polyhydroxyphenols content of at least about 0.25% by weight. The method comprises moistening whole deshelled cocoa beans or a coarse fraction of cocoa nibs with a hot concentrated alkaline processing liquid, wherein the processing liquid has a concentration equivalent to at least about 20% by weight of K2CO3.
In United States Publication No. 2002/0034579, Biehl et al. describes a method of producing low-flavor cocoa from unfermented cocoa beans in two steps. In the first step, cocoa beans are treated with an aqueous medium at an increased temperature and/or in the presence of acids to disrupt subcellular structures and inhibit enzymes that produce aroma precursors. In the second step, the cocoa beans are treated with an oxidative environment to oxidize polyhydroxy phenols. After these treatments, the cocoa beans are dried, deshelled, and then conventionally processed into cocoa products.
In International Patent Publication No. WO 97/33484, Arnold et al. describes a method of reducing the acidity of fermented cocoa beans. The method comprises partially deshelling fermented cocoa beans and then drying the beans. The cocoa beans are partially deshelled, wherein the shells are partially removed, opened, or broken. Deshelling can be accomplished by a chemical process, such as by lye-peeling, or by a mechanical process, such as by manual removing or automated scraping, scoring, cracking, crushing, and/or winnowing. The drying process is at an ambient temperature of from 15° C. to 35° C. The method further comprises an optional step of washing the beans before deshelling to remove excess mucilage from the fermented beans.